Lutron

The Lutron story began in the late 1950s in Joel Spira's makeshift lab in Brooklyn, New York. A young physicist fascinated by the aesthetic manipulation of light, Spira turned a spare bedroom into his make shift lab and set out to invent a solid-state device that would enable people to vary the intensity of the lights in their homes. At the time this was a radical notion, as light control was costly, energy consuming and too difficult to install. This all changed in 1959, when Spira emerged from his lab with a solid-state dimmer that could replace the switch in a residential wall box. He had replaced the rheostat with a thyristor, which controlled the light by interrupting the power flowing to the lamp. This shrank the size of the dimmer unit and used much less energy. This is how modern dimming was born. Allowing people to control the light in their homes like never before.

Spira's invention - a simple rotary dimmer that can still be found on many dining-room walls today - marked the birth of the lighting control industry. In almost 50 years of innovation, Lutron has invented hundreds of lighting control devices and systems, and expanded their product offering from 2 to 15,000. The company has advanced the technology of lighting controls while maintaining exceptional quality and design. Lutron continues to lead the market in high-quality lighting controls for fluorescent, halogen, incandescent, magnetic low-voltage, electronic low-voltage and LED light sources. As world renowned as they are, Lutron light controls continue to perform the most valuable of personal services - helping to keep people safe and comfortable in their own homes.